The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Swiss farmhouse with cranberry and pecan

JonJ's picture
JonJ

Swiss farmhouse with cranberry and pecan

Am still loving the yeast water! This was a repeat of Hamelman's "Swiss Farmhouse" from the community bake - used the same formula but with some minor tweaks. Said tweaks being that I used apple yeast water (fed using Granny Smith apples, originally started as a raisin yeast water); and replaced the raisins and walnuts by cranberries and pecans; the cranberries were soaked in boiled water for 20 minutes and so were slightly more hydrated than the raisins usually are.

The interesting thing about using the apple yeast water this time is that build 1 and build 2 both had some lovely apple odours to them, but as usual with the yeast waters I can't taste it in the final bread.

The bread flour that I used ("Champagne Valley") needed fairly long in the mixer before the mixer ran clean. It ended up needing 20 minutes before I was satisfied, and perhaps next time I use this brand of flour I'll try it with an autolyse beforehand as that felt like a long time. But, the long mix gave a nicely developed gluten, and I've never had the experience of slicing into a bread and thinking the interior looked like the interior of a croissant until this one.

To be fair "work meetings" meant I was distracted, so perhaps I let the fermentation run longer than usual too, but that isn't such a bad thing now, is it? So this bread had 2 hours of bulk fermentation before shaping without any coil folds, followed by 2 hours of final proof before it was baked without a cold retard. The aliquot jar at the time of baking showed a volume increase of about 225%, think this is a first for me without over proofing!

Comments

Moulin's picture
Moulin

Success! Thank you for sharing all these pictures and details.

I love baking this bread and I also do this variations with pecans and cranberries.

If I don't want to take the time to prepare the yeast water I use my own starter, it comes out a bit different but still nice too.

JonJ's picture
JonJ

Thanks for the comment - actually has inspired me to make one today when I'm making a farmhouse bread with (a lot - 370g as per the CB recipe) of my regular sourdough levain.

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

Beautiful looking loaf.  I love using yeast water too!  I have a blueberry (honey for refresh sugar source) and a raisin (date syrup as refresh sugar source) that I’ve had going for at least 9 months.  I use it in every bake with or without sourdough depending on the bread.

I was thinking of trying something with walnuts and this bread might be it.  Will have to dig into the CB posts.

Thanks for posting!

JonJ's picture
JonJ

Thanks Troy, was wondering if you feed the yeast water with further fruit and the sugar source or just the sugar source?

Up until now I've just been feeding with more apple or raisin.

-Jon

HeiHei29er's picture
HeiHei29er

The video is a little "cheesey", but this is the method I follow for refreshing.  I use the honey or the date syrup as a 1:1 replacement for the sugar in his refresh amounts, essentially the honey to fresh water ratio is 1:20.  I also strain out the old fruit and add in some fresh blueberries or raisins every time I refresh.  It has worked great for me so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8jbrE-BB9U

 

Benito's picture
Benito

Well fermented and well shaped Jon, I love that loaf, it is a winner.

Benny

JonJ's picture
JonJ

Benny I'm cheekily expecting you to make a yeast water loaf with the pH aliquot, mostly to satisfy my own curiosity about how the pH drops when these breads are fermenting.

Guess I should just commit and get a pH meter of my own rather than waiting for you!

-Jon

Benito's picture
Benito

It's on my list to do, but I have to revive my yeast water first and my list of things to do is long.  It would be great if you start sharing pH data as well though.😉

Benny

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Fascinating.  

Ilya Flyamer's picture
Ilya Flyamer

Fantastic crumb, so beautiful!

gavinc's picture
gavinc

Looks great. I love this bread and have made it several times. Like the pecan and cranberry addition. The first time I tried yeast water was with some cumquats from the backyard, as the store-bought raisins were coated and didn't work. I've since made it successfully with organic raisins.  Nice loaf.

Gavin